3 Reasons Your Dogs Recall Is Flopping

Your doing all the training, your teaching your whippet that coming back pays off. You are using high value treats but still your dog is not coming back.

This can become very embarrassing and put you off even trying. I remember finding my young teen whippet Arthur being a real challenge, but often the issue is we just need to tweak things that may not be working out right.

There are often a few reasons your recall isn’t so much a rocket recall, but a rubbish recall.

1. You are not working on training generally

Very often when people have recall problems they fixate on them and work on those constantly, which can create frustration and damage the dog - owner relationship. Train life skills and motivation games too. Work on fun exercises such as a hand touch, standing between your legs, tricks or engagement. Creating a strong bond through training away from distractions will help your dog find you more valuable overall.

2. You are letting your dog fail regularly!

Many people will have a perfect recall when there is nothing around, but when distractions pop up the dog runs off! This can start to become a very big habit, where your dog knows they can just run off up to other people or dogs. Try using a 50-10m long line around distractions so your dog cannot fail. I love using tracking lines which are rubberized and I tie knots regularly throughout so that if they run fast, my hand hits a knot- not fly through metres of long line!

3. You only recall when the walk is over

I have seen it many times. The dog is perfect throughout the walk, but once the owner loops back to the end of the walk, the dog knows and starts running off, usually as the owner has that lead in hand and their body language changes. Make sure you are practising recalling your dog and putting them on the lead throughout the walk. That way they know that the lead being on doesn’t mean the end of their walk.

Make sure your not just calling your dogs at the end of walks (or to only break up fun!), use a long line if your recall just isn’t there yet and have fun training your dog at other times.

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